Learning Pathways in Adult Education

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The 4-Square graphic organizer has been used in English Language Arts classes for years, but what about using it in Math class? This video provides an example of how you could use this particular graphic organizer to help learners find deeper meaning with math vocabulary. Give it a try and let us know how it works for you!

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At i-Pathways, we seldom get to see the direct effect our product has on the learners who are using it. This makes it especially rewarding for us to read about those who have used i-Pathways to pass their high school equivalency exam and have gone on to better themselves. An i-Pathways user from Illinois, Glenn Youngkrantz, has been featured in the “Adult Learner Success Stories” of Educate & Elevate; you can read his success story here. Way to go, Mr. Youngkrantz!

Educate & Elevate is “a collaboration of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) and the National Council of State Directors of Adult Education (NCSDAE).” This is a national campaign dedicated to promoting adult education and sharing success stories so that the country can see the importance of adult education in our world. We are honored that i-Pathways has had a part in so many success stories. We hope to hear yours soon!

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While “My Aunt Sally” only has good intentions to help us remember the order of operations, this mnemonic actually ends up hindering some of us along the way…. and so does the acronym PEMDAS.

The order of operations is actually:

Complete what’s inside the grouping symbols. We are taught to look for parenthesis (hence the Please in Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) when we’re first learning how to do the order of operations because parenthesis are the most simple form of grouping symbols. However, grouping symbols also include brackets and the division bar but somehow these get overlooked. Maybe we should’ve called this Golly Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Exponents. Complete all exponents. If there is more than one exponent in a problem, do what’s inside the grouping symbols first and then move from left to right.

Multiply and Divide in order from left to right. When we are first learning how to do the order of operations, our teachers only give us problems where multiplication is on the left of division in the problem, or there is only one of these operations in the problem. They think they’re being helpful, but in reality it doesn’t help us understand the fact that you’re supposed to do these two things in order from left to right. Instead of this helping us, a good chunk of us end up thinking we always do multiplication first…but that’s not at all the truth. The mnemonic could’ve very well been Please Excuse Dawn Mary And Sam!

Add and Subtract in order from left to right. The teachers used the same teaching ideas with Addition and Subtraction. We’re supposed to do whichever one comes first when reading the problem from the left to the right, but many of us think we always have to add first… all because of Aunt Sally.

While we all know that Aunt Sally only has good intentions, we also know that she can be a tricky devil. Don’t let her or PEMDAS ruin a good math problem for you!

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At i-Pathways, we believe our product helps change peoples’ lives on a daily basis. Therefore, we pour our hearts and souls into making our program one of the best high school equivalency test preparation programs available. We’d like to know what YOU think about i-Pathways!

Has i-Pathways helped you get prepared for your GED? Are you using i-Pathways in your classroom? Do you know someone who has benefited from using our program? Have you spoken to the people at our support desk? Have you attended a webinar where they taught you how to use the specific tools of i-Pathways? Have you used any of the free professional development offered by the program? Do you want to tell the world about how you’re using i-Pathways in your life?

Write a review on GED Marketplace and we’ll enter your name into a drawing to win one of ten vouchers for a single subject practice test for the GED. The vouchers can be transferred to another person. For example, you could win a voucher to give to your child or a student in your class. Let us know you’ve written a review between now and August 30th by replying to this post or any post on Facebook or Twitter about the contest. Thanks so much for participating and good luck!

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Why is it important for students to access their prior knowledge? As teachers we want to get them thinking about what they have learned in the past about a specific topic. This may be something they’ve learned in school, at home, at work, etc. When this happens, they can more easily connect what they already know to what you are learning in the class. It makes learning the content seem easier if they’ve had experiences with it and already know something about it. It’s our job to help them recall this information so that they can build on their prior knowledge.

How do we help students access their prior knowledge? Anything teachers can do to get the learners thinking about the topic and what they’ve learned about it in the past will be helpful to them. Sometimes people use anchor charts, like a KWL (What do I know, what do I want to know, what did I learn) chart, brainstorm as a group, take a survey, or set up stations that utilize the prior knowledge.

I’ve created a matching activity that can be used to access prior knowledge using the Key Terms from the Modern and Historical Governments lesson in the Civics and Government unit of the Social Studies module in i-Pathways. Here isa link to the document for the activity described inthis video. Enjoy and let us know how it goes for you!